'Hounded' for wanting to convert, woman seeks protection from HC

New Delhi: In response to a plea filed before it by a Hindu woman who was allegedly harassed by her own family members and subsequently media channels who reportedly "hounded" her in their broadcasts for wanting to convert her religion to Islam, the Delhi High Court has directed adequate police protection to a 26-year-old woman who had left her Bhajanpura house fearing consequences for her move.

A single-judge bench of Justice Subramonium Prasad in an order passed on Friday had directed the woman to approach the SHO of Jamia Nagar Police Station, who will ensure adequate police protection is given to her till the next date of hearing which has been fixed for July 27.

In her plea, the woman has claimed that she was in search of a social organisation which could provide her legal assistance to change her religion to Islam. Following this, she found one organisation which went by the name of Islam Dawah Centre, situated in Delhi's Jamia Nagar.

After she explored the site, she was asked to fill an application form following which she filled the same but could not proceed because the charges were too high. However, suddenly certain media houses started harassing her by airing certain programmes against her and her family too started threatening her with dire consequences, the plea stated.

Significantly, Islam Dawah Centre has been in the centre of a storm for allegedly being involved in a religion conversion racket with its Chairman, one Mohd Umar Gautam, being arrested by the UP police for forcibly converting several such woman. The UP anti-terrorism squad had also arrested Mufti Qazi Jahangir Alam Qasmi, along with Gautam, for allegedly carrying out several such conversions.

The woman's lawyer, Advocate Mobin Akhtar, told Millennium Post that his client has been following the Islam religion for several years and has been following its teachings and hence wanted to finally convert into the religion on her own free will. "When she stumbled upon the centre's site, she filled up the form but could not proceed since its fee was too high for her," Akhtar said.

Following this, when a raid was carried out by UP ATS at the centre's office and Gautam was held, the record of the woman registering her details were seized by them and somehow also got leaked to various media channels like Zee News who played it on air, the lawyer further claimed.

The lawyer said as a result his client was harassed, adding that the plea has also sought an investigation as to how did her record get leaked to the press.

Earlier this week, another woman, one Ayesha Alvi, who converted to Islam on her own free will was also provided police protection by the HC.